A brave Stockton schoolgirl, once given just two weeks to live, is celebrating an extra special tenth anniversary.

A decade ago this week Ellie-May Stephenson became the region's youngest patient to undergo a liver transplant - at just six months old.

Doctors christened her a "miracle baby" after she underwent a traumatic ten-hour operation to save her life.

Today Ellie-May seems like a typical ten-year-old schoolgirl, enjoying her time at St Mark's Primary and joking around with older sister, Claire, 11.

But her mum and dad, Sharon and Craig, know just how lucky they are to have seen their cherished daughter grow up.

"We can't believe it was ten years ago already, but at the time we didn't think we'd see this day," said Sharon.

At one stage, in the autumn of 1995, the couple were told by doctors the heart-wrenching news that without the transplant their daughter had just two weeks to live.

Ellie-May was born three weeks early with jaundice. At six weeks old she was admitted to North Tees Hospital with biliary atresia - a one in 10,000 condition where the drainage of the liver is blocked.

She was taken to Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital where her family waited three agonising months for a donor.

As Ellie-May's future hung in the balance a donor was found, and world renowned surgeon John Buckels carried out the transplant. In her short lifetime the youngster has spent around 100 hours in operating theatres, and still goes to North Tees and Birmingham for regular check-ups.

"She still needs medication every day and is susceptible to colds and infections," said her dad. We have to keep an eye on her and watch where she goes. But a lot of people would be surprised to know what she has been through."

Sharon added: "They just can't tell she is any different from other kids - and that's how we want it.

"Even though she is special we don't want her to think she is any different. We try and let her be as normal as we can, because at the end of the day she's still just a child."

Thanks to the dedicated care she received at what is now the University Hospital of North Tees, and her regular check-ups there, Ellie-May and her family have built up trusting relations with doctors and staff.

But like hundreds of other local mums Sharon is concerned about the future of children's services at the hospital under Professor Ara Darzi's Acute Services Review of Hartlepool and Teesside.

Under proposals currently out to consultation, many children's services will move to the University Hospital of Hartlepool.

Recently the 33-year-old mum joined around 150 campaigners and North Tees consultants on a protest march against the controversial plans.

"We have got to know and trust all the doctors and staff at North Tees, which is only ten minutes away," she said. "But we don't know where Ellie-May's consultants are going to be based in the future."